Posted on 11/29/2005 5:35:00 PM PST by blam
Anger as film highlights good-time geisha girls
By Colin Joyce in Tokyo and Richard Spencer in Beijing
(Filed: 30/11/2005)
Japan hosted the premiere of a Hollywood film on geishas last night amid anger that the girls are portrayed as prostitutes and the actresses who play them Chinese.
Memoirs of a Geisha not only has Chinese leading ladies, it is a screen version of a book by an American, directed by an American and shot in California, not Kyoto, their traditional home.
Zhang Ziyi, Michelle Yeoh and Gong Li in Memoirs of a Geisha
The film, shown in the national sumo stadium, is strongly sexual and likely to reinforce the geishas' reputation as women of the night.
But in Japanese "geisha" means "person of art" and the girls see themselves as guardians of such traditions as the tea ceremony, flower arranging and poetry.
They insist that in their unique "flower and willow world" wealthy patrons pay for these talents, plus their cultured conversation, not sexual favours. Both Arthur Golden's 1997 bestseller and the new film show novices selling their virginity to the highest bidder, which geishas say is a slur on their profession.
As wounding to Japanese pride are the actresses playing the three main geishas: Zhang Ziyi, Michelle Yeoh, a former Bond girl, and Gong Li, all ethnic Chinese.
The casting provoked fury in China, where one website attacked Zhang for playing a "Japanese prostitute" and the lover of a Japanese man, the actor Ken Watanabe.
"How outrageous, to sleep with a Japanese man for money. She has humiliated all Chinese," complained one internet posting.
Many Chinese are sensitive because of bitter memories from the Second World War, when thousands of Chinese women were forced into sexual slavery by Japan.
The film's director, Bob Marshall, first upset Japanese when he suggested there were no Japanese actresses suitable for the geisha roles.
Chen Kaige, the director of the celebrated 1993 film Farewell My Concubine, said: "Geisha cannot be performed by Chinese. It's an age-old traditional Japanese culture.
"How to walk, how to hold a fan, how to smile, how to look at people, all these gestures and facial expressions you need to be reared in Japan to perform.
"But perhaps American producers don't care."
Critics say the film's dancing looks all wrong and the kimono has been "sexed up". The geisha's white make-up, which foreigners might find scary and unattractive, has also been dropped.
Such details will infuriate the geisha, who train intensively to master intricate dances and pay a fortune for elaborate kimonos.
Golden's book depicts a geisha house rife with scheming and bullying. But real geisha take pride in being independent while living together with "sisters" and "mothers".
Mineko Iwasaki, a former geisha interviewed at length by Golden during his research, released her own book to correct what she considered his errors.
As an amateur anthropologist, allow me to say that all of those Asian women are hot and I do not care which particular country they were born in.
Boy, the chinese seriously hate the japanese, eh?
And yeah, I'd like to second the opinion that all asian (didya mean oriental?) women are hot, regardless of nationality. I'm married to one and I should know ;-)
"Findings by American anthropologist C. Loring Brace, University of Michigan, will surely be controversial in race conscious Japan. The eye of the predicted storm will be the Ainu, a "racially different" group of some 18,000 people now living on the northern island of Hokkaido. Pure-blooded Ainu are easy to spot: they have lighter skin, more body hair, and higher-bridged noses than most Japanese. Most Japanese tend to look down on the Ainu."
BWAHAHAHA! The Japanese are angry because Japanese are being played by Chinese women ... and the Chinese are angry because Chinese women are playing Japanese! Actually, I suppose it reflects hostilities lingering from WW2 and earlier, and is something of a serious matter, even if this manifestation is trivial.
My Japanese instructor in college said that she thought the most beautiful women in East Asia were Chinese, fwiw. And Gong Li is one of the most beautiful alive today, in my opinion.
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I agree! :) Plenty where I live.
They have short legs. Muscular, manly thieghs, short little femors.
Gimme an American woman anytime with long, shapely legs up to *there".
I think Cindy Sheehan is available.
It is true that geisha are not prostitutes, but they are what we in the western culture would probably call mistresses. One thing that differs from our concept of a mistress is that they are organized in a brothel-like group where they train to become geisha. While it is also true that there is a cultural aspect to their activity, the main activity for them has always been as sexual partners. It is somewhat disingenuous to deny that. BTW, if you are so inclined, there are plenty of regular prostitutes in Japan. All you have to do is ask for an escort or simply go to a brothel.
Wendy Smith was arrested and charged with misdemeanor shoplifting. She has shamed and humiliated every American living, in country and overseas.
We must all now face Hari-Kiri and kill ourselves to save national pride.
I betcha these geisha know the Kyoto protocols.
Thighs. Femurs.
I recall reading (student of costume ...) that the kimono design developed, among other reasons, to de-emphasize the short, heavy legs, by drawing attention to the torso with the obi belt and the decoration around the shoulders.
Total agreement on both points! And I'm lucky enough to work in San Francisco, where there are hordes of them. ;)
Here's Gong Li. Believe it or not, she'll be 40 years old on 12/31/2005.
Just a few months older than I am ... but I'll bet she hasn't had eight children, and gets her hair colored professionally :-). (My Japanese teacher also said that it's assumed in Japan that all older women color their hair, and it's perfectly polite to ask what brand of hair color a lady uses, or who her stylist is!)
She had to be born with that face though, and one just has to stare in awe.
For which they take no pay...
/sarc
I've never heard of a Geisha without a white face. What was the purpose of taking that out?
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